Ourside

Founded by Keta Burke-Williams, Ourside grew from Keta’s experience as the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant mother and an American father, growing up between different cultures and rarely seeing those experiences represented in traditional luxury fragrance. While earning her MBA at Harvard Business School, conversations with her sister about fragrance, identity, and cleaner formulations sparked the idea that would eventually become Ourside.

The brand began with a proof-of-concept fragrance called Moon Dust, created with support from a Harvard grant. Today, Ourside builds each fragrance around a vivid imagined world: a desert humming beneath your feet, a bonfire surrounded by dewy grass, or a moonlit shoreline. The perfumes are developed in collaboration with perfumer Darryl Do, then blended in small batches in the Bronx. They are vegan, Leaping Bunny certified, and created with an emphasis on thoughtful formulation and craftsmanship.

At its heart, Ourside is about belonging. Keta describes scent as a way home, particularly for people who have grown up between countries, languages, cultures, or identities and haven't always seen themselves reflected on the fragrance shelf. Rather than borrowing the traditional imagery of European luxury perfumery, Ourside creates its own world, one built from personal memories, multicultural experiences, imagination, and community.